The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit in respected, ivory tower musical circles. But, they should. Nothing Miles Davis did in 1970 wasn't done by the Grateful Dead first. Long, free-form compositions? Check. Extensive percussive elements? Check. World music instrumentation and influence? Check. Cohesion through melodic fragments? Check. Spacey, off-kilter explorations? Checkity check check (listen to Bitches Brew or Live-Evil and then to some early Dead for comparison, especially texturally and compositionally).
The Grateful Dead invented (or, perhaps, popularized) modal jazz rock. Modal jazz, which I've blogged about previously, is jazz based upon simple, one or two chord vamps. Instead of the busy harmonic motion of the previous fifty-or-so years of jazz, Miles Davis, in 1959, released Kind of Blue, which included, most notably, So What. So What consists of two minor chords. That's it. Through it's lack of complexity, the constraints of dense harmonic motion are eliminated.
Undoubtedly, the Grateful Dead were influenced by Miles Davis (Jerry Garcia in his later years even released an acoustic album called So What with mandolin player David Grisman). Now, I don't mean to argue that the Grateful Dead play Jazz better than Miles Davis (that would be folly). But, they did put a rock feel behind Miles' ideas first, and their explorations are deep, and full in their own, not-jazzy way. And, the pinnacle of the Grateful Dead's psychedelic, modal explorations is Dark Star.
What is Dark Star? Jerry Garcia once said (I'm paraphrasing), "There's a little bit of Dark Star in every thing we do." Dark Star is a very simple tune, alternating between two major chords, A and G. It's simplicity is truly it's greatest boon; it served as a template for the Grateful Dead's musical exploration, especially in the early years (when the boys used the gong and foreign percussion sounds, and really opened up the tune).
In many ways, Dark Star comes from the avant-garde musical tradition of the mid-20th century. The tradition, pioneered by John Cage and the like, favored abstract, often "spooky" musical elements and a free, open form. Many early Grateful Dead shows (from 67-69) have 2-5 minute sections simply called "Feedback," which are exactly that: distorted, feedback from electric instruments creating weird, off-setting noises.
This kind of musical exploration makes sense, given the Grateful Dead's origins: their first show as "The Grateful Dead" (they were called "The Warlocks" before) was 12/4/1965, at a Merry Pranksters Acid Test in San Jose, CA. And, what were the Acid Tests all about? In a word, freedom. Exploration and openness were paramount; the tried, over-done I-IV-V rock forms of the previous ten years were not enough (though they still sounded good, and the Grateful Dead still played them, interspersed with their free-form jams).
In this way, I think the Grateful Dead really arose as a synthesis of styles. Rock was not enough. The Grateful Dead were educated music listeners, especially bassist Phil Lesh, who was attending undergraduate music school, lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who played jazz frequently in clubs around the Bay Area in the early sixties, and percussionist Mickey Hart, who was highly influenced by world music and percussion. These influences--classical, jazz, and world--fused with the American songbook and country-esque material that was the pop music of the day, and the result was The Grateful Dead.
And now I would like to discuss the form and explorations within Dark Star specifically, but it seems I've run out of time. More in-depth discussion tomorrow.
PS: Check out this Dark Star while you wait in anticipation. Actually, the whole show is awesome.
In many ways, Dark Star comes from the avant-garde musical tradition of the mid-20th century. The tradition, pioneered by John Cage and the like, favored abstract, often "spooky" musical elements and a free, open form. Many early Grateful Dead shows (from 67-69) have 2-5 minute sections simply called "Feedback," which are exactly that: distorted, feedback from electric instruments creating weird, off-setting noises.
This kind of musical exploration makes sense, given the Grateful Dead's origins: their first show as "The Grateful Dead" (they were called "The Warlocks" before) was 12/4/1965, at a Merry Pranksters Acid Test in San Jose, CA. And, what were the Acid Tests all about? In a word, freedom. Exploration and openness were paramount; the tried, over-done I-IV-V rock forms of the previous ten years were not enough (though they still sounded good, and the Grateful Dead still played them, interspersed with their free-form jams). In this way, I think the Grateful Dead really arose as a synthesis of styles. Rock was not enough. The Grateful Dead were educated music listeners, especially bassist Phil Lesh, who was attending undergraduate music school, lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who played jazz frequently in clubs around the Bay Area in the early sixties, and percussionist Mickey Hart, who was highly influenced by world music and percussion. These influences--classical, jazz, and world--fused with the American songbook and country-esque material that was the pop music of the day, and the result was The Grateful Dead.
And now I would like to discuss the form and explorations within Dark Star specifically, but it seems I've run out of time. More in-depth discussion tomorrow.
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| The Warlocks in 1965 in Palo Alto, CA. From left to right, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Billy Kreutzman (on drums in back), Jerry Garcia, and Ron "Pig Pen" Mckernan |
PS: Check out this Dark Star while you wait in anticipation. Actually, the whole show is awesome.
Great notion. I don't know that I would mark Bitches Brew as the beginning of these sorts of exploration for Miles Davis however. The stuff from 67, 68 like In A Silent Way, Jack Johnson and Miles In the Sky surely merit consideration.
ReplyDeleteA tribute to Jack Johnson was recorded in 1970, after Bitches Brew (which was mostly recorded in 1969). But, you have a great point besides that; MIles' free-form explorations seem to have taken off by the time In A Silent Way was released (July 1969) and recorded (February 1969). I usually think of Miles In the Sky as Miles' last, final hurrah with his second quintet, and so include it with that era of Miles' music. None of these albums, however, were recorded earlier than January 1968.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in doing an exploration of how the popular, rock culture of the late sixties influenced Miles. I know he liked Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown; I wonder what the extent of the impact of the hippie movement was upon him.